Melissa Laveaux profile picture

Melissa Laveaux

sour bride, crown of vines...

About Me

Her music / Stands/ Double edged/ And rich Heavy honeyed/ Her dusk hushed voice Sifts through your soul Plucking your honesties/ Apart from the lies - Liz Cullen The low and calm rapture of feasting on summer fruit - that is the authentic freshness behind Mélissa Laveaux’s unashamedly personal and accessible music. Her trilingual lyrics are the work of a well-studied wordsmith. Musically her guitar-play fluidly syncopates percussive jazz notes and bass lines, combining cultural influences from kreyol-calypso folkloric ballads from her Haitian roots (Martha Jean-Claude), early 90's trip hop (Morcheeba), and Brazilian samba-rock (Adriana Calcanhotto). Although, more common references lie between Macy Gray and Rickie Lee Jones.Since releasing a self-produced debut album 'Camphor & Copper' in 2006 Melissa has been featured at the Halifax Pop Explosion, Canadian Music Week, 2007 Montreal International Jazz Festival and on live concert recordings for CBC Radio's Go!, Bandwidth and Canada Live. She's won an OCFF Songs From the Heart world music award for penning the song 'Koudlo'. Last summer, Laveaux signed with Parisian label "N0Format!" as the youngest talent on their roster (labelmates include Julia Sarr, Mamani Keita + Nicolas Repac and Gonzales).Laveaux is about to wrap up recording a new version of 'Camphor & Copper' with producers Lisa Patterson (Imaginit Music, Toronto) and Majiker (Camille, UK/France), an untitled record with new songs and a few covers. She has temporarily relocated to Paris, France to facilitate upcoming European tours (France, Spain, UK, etc.) booked with international booking agents 3Dfamily as an opening act for bands such as K'Naan, Ba Cissoko. Laveaux has recently opened for Feist, Lura and Yael Naim.----On another note, please support independent art of all forms! ...

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 8/12/2005
Band Website: melissalaveaux.com
Band Members:

I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V3.6 !

Mélissa Laveaux (singer-songwriter: vocals, guitar)***new band line-up coming up soon...CONTACT: MATTHIEU PINSARD at 3DFamily for booking booking(at)3dfamily(dot)org OR malleablerecords(at)gmail(dot)com
Influences: Billie Holiday, Maria Creuza, Skye Edwards, Macy Gray, zap mama, cesaria evora, aretha franklin, eartha kitt, hanne hukkelberg, feist, emiliana torrini, emilie simon, martha jean-claude, keren ann, adriana calcanhotto, keziah jones, me'shell n'degeocello, martina topley-bird, tricky, morcheeba, bebel gilberto, kassav, sam roberts, ane brun, erykah badu, jill scott, lauryn hill, sister rosetta tharpe, stina nordenstam, lhasa (lhasa de sela), lisa germano, angela mccluskey, ariane moffatt, francoiz breut, bjork, camille, lura, edith piaf, nina simone, sarah vaughn bossa nova, afrobeat, trip hop, conscious hip hop (i.e. no "bitches'n'hoes"), experimental, alternative, rock, and sometimes... sometimes... punk. :)
Sounds Like: butter on burnt toast according to anne-marie brugger. and cake batter according to fateema sayani. somehow i keep reminding people of food...The original version of 'Camphor & Copper' is temporarily not being sold. Please email ina.julien(at)gmail(dot)com to find out how to get some music... or wait til September 2008 for the release of the new CD under NoFormat!i also feel inspired by artsy events such as: ..
Record Label: N0 Format! + malleable records
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

on the love of the sun being all i can afford

(.. and it's better than the love i thought i had before...)right now, i'll say that i'm really proud of the show i played for international women's week when i opened for the one and only susheela ra...
Posted by Melissa Laveaux on Sun, 09 Mar 2008 05:10:00 PST

on what this city (paris) sweats...

excerpt from my personal blog... i've been in paris about 12 days now. and it's finally starting to grow on me. except for the public transit. i really hate buses here. it's like people stop being fri...
Posted by Melissa Laveaux on Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:04:00 PST

on what this city (paris) sweats...

excerpt from my personal blog... i've been in paris about 12 days now. and it's finally starting to grow on me. except for the public transit. i really hate buses here. it's like people stop being fri...
Posted by Melissa Laveaux on Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:04:00 PST

on recording at imaginit studios x2...

hello, i know i don't blog much these days... it's been a rough few months.i am recording (again!) in toronto this time. we are continuing working on the re-make of "camphor & copper". majiker was...
Posted by Melissa Laveaux on Sun, 11 Nov 2007 02:03:00 PST

on being the only haitian at the festival

hey folks,so, this has been a crazy week so far.. and it's about to end with a bang (or at least i hope so).to get an idea of where i am physically and emotionally, i just came back from playing an ou...
Posted by Melissa Laveaux on Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:01:00 PST

on acquiring skills and good news

one thing i love doing is working on whatever i work on obsessively at a time of my choosing. when it's forced it's no fun. i guess i'm kind of a musician in every aspect of my life...anyway, as i wor...
Posted by Melissa Laveaux on Sun, 18 Feb 2007 11:53:00 PST

on why i play guitar

good morning and evening folks,here's a lovely feminist rant i promised months and months agojust thought i'd write a little bit about why i play guitar. why? because i am sort of getting tired of peo...
Posted by Melissa Laveaux on Sat, 23 Dec 2006 05:53:00 PST

on addictions

    so i have another blog - on livejournal. and i talk about all my little addictions and neuroses. obsessions with people, certain foods, certain books, movies (i love so many films.....
Posted by Melissa Laveaux on Sat, 16 Dec 2006 05:31:00 PST

on the xpress review

andrea simms-karp just reviewed my CD - i got 4 (stars) headphones!i just wanted to state right here and now - i did not pay her to write such a lovely review! i didn't even ask her to. she just liked...
Posted by Melissa Laveaux on Sat, 11 Nov 2006 01:50:00 PST

on audience percussive handclapping

last night at my capital slam gig, i got my very first audience participation handclap!! so basically, a few people really like "ulysses" and so they knew what the beat was. then all of a sudden the e...
Posted by Melissa Laveaux on Fri, 10 Nov 2006 10:35:00 PST